Deck 8: Behavioral Evidence and Crime Analysis

Question 1

The basic theory underlying the psychological profiling process is that Investigators

A) offenders are under stress when committing crimes
B) crimes reflect the personality and characteristics of the offender
C) speech patterns can indicate deception
D) circumstantial evidence is more powerful than direct evidence

Answer 1

crimes reflect the personality and characteristics of the offender

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT usually included in a psychological profile of a murderer?

A) race
B) employment status
C) marital status
D) background of the parents

Answer 2

background of the parents

Question 3

Which does not apply to an organized crime scene of a murderer ______.

A) is likely to be neat and orderly
B) shows planning of the crime
C) is not likely to contain the dead body
D) is likely to have a weapon at a scene

Answer 3

is likely to have a weapon at a scene

Question 4

An offender who leaves an organized crime scene ______.

A) is usually of below-average intelligence
B) tends to live or work near the crime scene
C) is employed in unskilled work, if employed at all
D) is living with a partner

Question 5

A murderer or rapist who victimizes a low-risk victim is likely ______.

A) to know the victim
B) to be engaged in unskilled work
C) to be of below-average intelligence
D) to have an unstable or changing method of operation

Question 6

The ultimate objective of geographic profiling is to ______.

A) predict where the next crime in a series will occur
B) differentiate staging for MO
C) identify the area in which the perpetrator lives
D) determine the meaning of certain written words

Question 7

An analysis of language structure of a statement may NOT include examination of ______.

A) grammar
B) the use of certain words
C) the use of pronouns
D) upbringing

Question 8

In which of the following investigations did psycholinguistics have a positive impact on the outcome of the case?

A) anthrax letters investigation
B) Unabomber investigation
C) BP gas station robbery investigation
D) all of these

Question 9

What is not part of the assumptions of the profiling process?

A) Humans are creatures of habit.
B) Crime reflects the characteristics and personality traits of the offender.
C) the analogy assumption
D) signature and MO of an offender

Question 10

The ______ carries out his/her crimes by motivations that frequently are derived from mental illness and accompanied distorted thinking.

A) organized offender
B) disorganized offender
C) staged offender
D) psycholinguistic offender

Question 11

Psychological profiles are often used in cases where a traditional motive is lacking; they are used in the most ______ of cases.

A) simple
B) difficult
C) prolific
D) serious

Question 12

______ refers to the actions taken in order to commit the crime.

A) Signature
B) Trophy
C) MO
D) Evidence

Question 13

______ refers to what is done by the offender to derive emotional satisfaction from the crime.

A) Signature
B) Trophy
C) MO
D) Evidence

Question 14

In general, acts of depersonalization are associated with ______ murderers.

A) organized
B) disorganized
C) staged
D) psycholinguistic

Question 15

The fundamental premise of ______ is that human beings do not move randomly throughout their environment.

A) behavioral analysis
B) psychological profiling
C) psycholinguistics
D) geographical profiling

Question 16

Statement analysis and stylometry are also known as ______.

A) organization
B) homology
C) staging
D) psycholinguistics

Question 17

______ is potentially useful in the criminal investigation process but it is problematic and subject to error, as are other forms of evidence available to investigators.

A) Behavioral evidence
B) Testimonial evidence
C) Scientific evidence
D) Cognitive evidence

Question 18

______ are areas where an individual spends the majority of his/her time.

A) Anchor points
B) Cognitive map
C) Distance decay
D) Buffer zone

Question 19

Familiar routes to and from commonly visited areas create an individual's ______.

A) anchor points
B) cognitive map
C) distance decay
D) buffer zone

Question 20

______ is the area close to the perpetrator's home where the perpetrator has a strong inclination to not commit a crime.

A) Anchor points
B) Cognitive map
C) Distance decay
D) Buffer zone

Question 21

______ is the concept that, as the distance away from a perpetrator's home increases, the chances of him/her committing a crime decreases.

A) Anchor points
B) Cognitive map
C) Distance decay
D) Buffer zone

Question 22

______ provide the perpetrator memories of the victim or the incident.

A) Souvenirs
B) Trophies
C) MOs
D) Signatures

Question 23

______ refers to the principle that offenders with similar criminal behaviors exhibit similar characteristics.

A) MO
B) Geographical profiling
C) Psychological profiling
D) Homology

Question 24

What is staging?

A) when someone pretends a crime occurred although it has not
B) when an offender damages a door although he had a key for it
C) when an investigator falsifies evidence
D) a tool to produce crime maps

Question 25

What does NOT apply to crime analysis?

A) It is looking for patterns in time and space.
B) It won't work without effective police strategies.
C) Crime maps are one of the most important tools.
D) It assumes that crime is randomly distributed through time and space.

Question 26

Psychological and crime scene profiling are the same as offender profiling.

Question 27

Psychological profiles of suspects can only be developed in cases such as serial homicide and rape.

Question 28

A profile is a probabilistic statement based on an understanding of the present crime as well as other previous similar crimes.

Question 29

Psychological profiling has been developed within the past five years or so.

Question 30

Sadistic or other violent behavior by a perpetrator in a rape is an indicator that the perpetrator committed previous similar crimes or will likely commit more such crimes in the future.

Question 31

One of the problems with the terms MO and signature is that it is often not clear what is MO and what is signature.

Question 32

A blitz-style attack often indicates a younger (and disorganized) killer.

Question 33

Trauma to the victim's face usually indicates that the victim and the offender are strangers.

Question 34

The construction of psychological profiles is a process of mapping the characteristics of offenders of previously solved crimes and applying them to offenders of unsolved ones.

Question 35

ViCAP is a nationwide database, which will identify an offender if enough characteristics of a crime are entered into it.

Question 36

Discuss the effectiveness of psychological profiles.

Question 37

What are the steps of the crime scene profiling process?

Question 38

Discuss the difference between an organized crime scene and a disorganized crime scene.

Question 39

Discuss the assumptions of the profiling process.

Question 40

What information can psycholinguistics provide to criminal investigations?